PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9093, 12 July 1915, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The news from South Africa is magnificent, because it vindicates the policy which settled the South African war and justifies the splendid reputation which General Botha made in the field against us. The policy made the General on© of the most valuable citizens of the Empire. The lesson of straight treatment by the granting of autonomy to a conquered people under the flag of the conqueror will resound throughout all ages as the greatest, the truest, ond the most high-minded in the government of subject peoples. When the great war ends, tho lesson will enforce the wisdom of the Czar’s offer to the people of the three Polands after the century of their degradation, and be a guiding light for the establishment of a permanent peace, based on the recognition of national aspirations. The magnificent loyalty of General Botha and his Boers to the British Empire has made for ever impossible such diplomatic settlements as followed the battle of Waterloo, such spoliations as were begun by Frederick the Great, and have culminated in the atrocious crime of his megalomaniac descendant against Belgium.

As a stroke against Germany, this conquest of German West Africa by the British-Boer General and Prime Minister is of incalculable value. As is pointed out by Sir Georg© Reid, In a report cabled to-day, the Germans have spent millions in their West African possession, solely for the purpose of conquering South Africa for the German Empire. After Agadir, tho blind Government of Germany prepared for raising, at the first opportunity, rebellion in South Africa, and prepared enormously. When the war began, the Germans made their calculated move by appealing to Boer disloyalty. In a moment, without serious effort, the rebellion that followed was wiped out by the immediate combination of loyal Boer and Briton, without causing a single interesting moment. The thing simply collapsed. It bad got into an atmosphere where nothing but loyalty can live, and it died as. a matter of course; just as dogs die when put in a lethal chamber.

But the Boer General-Prime Minister was not satisfied with putting down a German-made rebellion. He struck at the Power that made it. The enemy occupied vast areas, he held the railway communications, he retired from tho arid coast country, ho refuged in tie interior, he thought he was safe. The general plunged into the arid deserts, he made great turning movements which brought to nothing the training of the first soldiers in Germany. He began by taking their capital, and he ended by summoning his enemy to surrender before he knew he was surrounded. He won tho sort of victory which the great German war tradition knows as a victory without a to-morrow. The whole country is surrendered, every German soldier is a prisoner; and everything, whether in war us© or otherwise, is the property of the conqueror. As a fitting rounding off the whole of South

Africa, British and Boer, enthusiastically celebrates the victory over the German enemy who tried to filch their country out of the British Empire and place it under the infamous system of Gorman World Politics. It is a fine picture for Germany to contemplate as she laments the loss of a great colony, which has cost millions, was destined to be the foundation or a colossal German Colonial Empire, and will never again form part of the German Dominion-

The great success of the British loan makes very good reading, beside the reports of this magnificent South African exploit. It is not so much the amount, though seven hundred millions in such short space of time make a great record, as the way in which it is spread over tho nation. Great bankers, great brewers, great trading and transport institutions are side by side with tho great unions of dockers, miners, and the rest. Truly the nation is standing shoulder to shoulder. The investments of union funds thus revealed, surely close the awkwardnesses of the munitions question, proving that it is a question) now no longer.

A fine pendant, a contrasting pendant to this, is the news of bankruptcy from Hamburg. The HamburgAmerika Company is bankrupt, and the North German Lloyd’s is going fast. “Over the portal of a massive granite office-building on the shores of Hamburg’s placid Alster rests a tablet inscribed ‘My Field is the World’. “This is from a description of the head office which controls a fleet of 215 vessels aggregating 1,168,000 tons, tho. biggest shipping business in the world. It is said to be as dear to the Kaiser and the Germans as the “great” German Navy. Next to it in these hearts of the Fatherland’ is the Bremen comrade of this Hamburg giant, known ' as the Norddeutcher, etc., etc., and together the two have, as stated by their admirers, with the aid of Government subsidies, “blazed the way for German trade and commerce to the uttermost corners of the earth.” This company possesses 154 ships aggregating 795,000 tons. Herr Baffin controls tho first of these great institutions, familiarly known in Germany as the “Hapag,” being the initial leters of “Hamburg-Amerikan-ische-Paketfahrt-Aklien - Geseffschaft,” , truly ono of the “Jack Johnsons” of German nomenclature. Meinherr has refused Cabinet honours, he has accepted only tho Kaiser’s photograph with his autograph, “To tho farseeing and tireless pioneer of our commerce and export trade.” He is the uncrowned King of Hamburg, a thousand stories circulate of his business victories, he is on© of the supernatural powers of the Fatherland. Yet his company has gone. The fleet held idle, the ocean swept of German commerce, what was there left for the “Hapag” but bankruptcy. And if tho comrade of Bremen goes also, what wonder? These bankruptcies show better than any rumour, or stories of correspondents, or all the numerous authorities of “La Bague,” the heavy cost of the war to Germany. In Britain the third great shipping company of the world is registered, the British India with 141 vessels, aggregating 617.000 tons. Tho supremacy in shipping companies is with Germany, as the result of Government subsidies. The uvir has hit the Government, and the two great shipping companies have gone by the hoard.

The Berlin reply to the American Not© is another sign of the tremendous pressure of the British fleet on Germany during the war. The document has been described as unctuous. It is well deserved. What is more, it is tho worst piece of aggressive hypocrisy that even Germany ever devised. Bad as it is, it is the only rag of defence that stands between Germany and absolute savagery. Nevertheless, the document has a high value, apart from its value as a specimen of absolute falsehood, which only wants perjury to make it perfect. It is an admission that Germany is finding the strain put on her people by the British Navy intolerable; so intolerable as to excuse cold-blooded murder and piracy on the high seas.

The practical side is plain enough. Germany will not give up the submarine warfare, even against American ships, unless they are duly described and notified and guaranteed free from contraband. No nation could listen to such terms for a moment. America will not, of course. But what will be the outcome is not quit© clear. It ought to be war. Will it? Not, at all events, until Germany has exhausted som| more of the arts of evasion.

From the Dardanelles the only news of land fighting is that the Turks established some batteries on the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles entrance, and opened fire on. our trenches on the other side, which were duly silenced by the fire of the ships. The fleet is spending its time for. the most part* in bombarding various places on the coast ,of Anatolia, to prevent the concentration of troops for conveyance to Gallipoli. It is pretty plain that the fleet is not abandoning its work for fear of German submarines.

There is a fine submarine story, by the way, in the day’s news, which chronicles the capture of a submarine by a fine ruse. An Italian cruiser having captured a neutral (Balkan) trader carrying petrol and naphtha, got an admission from the skipper that she was waiting for an enemy submarine to transfer supplies. Whereupon tho Italian captain put a prize crew on board and some guns, went to the rendezvous and there duly captured the submarine by offer of choice between sinking and surrender. The submarine surrendered, of course, and was towed into harbour, lawful prize of war. The opportunity is taken to state the fact that three other submarines have been destroyed by the Italian navy since Italv entered the war. It is a welcome service.

The best point in the story, however, is not the capture, good as that is. It is a revelation. The German submarines in the Mediterranean are relying on the ordinary means of supply. They are not provided with the novel resource described by Mr Lake as having been invented by him and supplied to several European navies. Clearly, the Italian navy is not one of them. It makes the problem of submarines at the Dardanelles considerably simpler. Moreover, the fleets do not show any signs of being flustered by the presence of submarines. Even the submarine that sank the Carthage the other day does not seem to be a source of disquiet. That points again to the probability that the said craft was sunk, as reported, by a patrol boat.

From the Italian front on the Istrian side it is reported that the Italian troops are advancing across

the low country upon Trieste, and that they have reached to within thirty miles of the city. That implies a substantial advance from the frontier. An interesting and suggestive detail describes the activity, courage, and bonhomie of King Victor Emmanuel among the troops. Here and there and everywhere he goes, under fire or not it does not matter, reaching forward to points of danger, and chatting with the troops in all directions, distributing cigars and cigarettes.

From the Trentino side there are accounts of a class of fighting which shows what the Alpine troops of Italy are capable of among the mountains ■which give them their name. Climbing precipices, lowering men with ropes down rugged faces, and surprising the enemy in his sleep, make a novel and interesting method of warfare, which promises to show serious results. '

It is reported that the Kaiser’s palace at Corfu is now a submarine base for the German submarines. This is the famous Achilleion built by the late Empress Elizabeth, at a cost of £3,200,000. The most “extravagant folly of the extravagant Empress” it is called in “Memoirs of the Court of Vienna.” “Perched Upon a rock commanding the sea, it has two stories on the side lapped by the waves, and in addition a ground floor only on the land side. The base of the building, therefore, follows exactly the natural formation of the rock and the ascent to it.” The place was full of art treasures, bought at great cost by the Empress, and brought to it in her yacht Miramar, on which she made so many voyages. Frescoes, marble staircases, pillars of valuable stones, a magnificent Byzantine chapel, adorned by Muncaczy’s famous picture of “Christ Before Pilate”—all this and much more might be described with considerable interest, to say nothing of the wonderful gardens, with their 25,000 rose bushes, and glorious park. The interesting thing in connection with the above report is the position of the palace by the waterside —an ideal place for working with submarines. Perhaps that is the reason for the report. If the report is true, there will be either a new owner for the Achilleion, which the Kaiser bought after the death of the Express, or war between Greece and the Entente.

The second of these alternatives is discouraged by the report to-day, that the Kings of Greece, Bulgaria, and Roumania are shortly to meet and discuss their attitude. The probability is that the discussion will turn towards giving support to the Entente. Seeing that M. Venizelos has so large a majority of the House of Representatives recently elected, it is difficult to see any other conclusion. The chances are that if the report is true, the Achilleian will be deprived of its submarine facilities-

The Russian recovery between the Vistula and Bug continues. Explanation is made that the big battle in which the Austrians were so badly handled at Krasnyk, as reported last week, was due to the blunder of the Archduke in not keeping step with von Mackenseu’s army moving on his right between him and the Bug. Of course, he ought to have waited for the German General to swing ahead of him, for ho was bound for the great Russian supply depot at Brest-Litovsk, on the Bug, which must be taken or masked by an army interposing between that place and Warsaw and getting astride of the railway between the two, before the Archduke could move on Warsaw, after taking Lublin and Ivangorod. The Russian commander probably planned his stroke against the Archduke by holding up von Mackensen- while he fell hack before the Archduke. Having got the latter well forward he fell on his flank and routed him, taking care to prevent the German commander from sending help to his Austrian colleague. The fact that he hammered the Austrians for three days shows what a close grip he kept on the German. The Austrian has, today’s Petrograd report states, had another hammering, and is accelerating his retreat from Krasnyk. We expect soon to hear that von Mackensen has fallen hack in co-ordination. At the other end there is no change, the armies facing each other on the Gnita Lipa without fighting. How the Russian retreat was managed from the Stryj country south of the Dniester to this line the “Times” correspondent describes. He says it is one of the greatest retreats in history. Effected by alternative forced marches and the stubborn defence of prepared positions, the present Russian position he describes as very strong, and he says that there are six others behind equally strong for the repetition of these tactics if necessary. The check at Krasnyk has made a material alteration in the enemy’s dispositions.

In the west the monotony of trench fighting is relieved in the news columns by the report of the meeting of the Prime Ministers,. War Ministers, and other Cabinet members of the British and French Governments. If General Botha could have been present the advantage of his counsel would doubtless have been welcome. An American correspondent sends an encouraging statement that before two months there will be the greatest drive of the war, turning the Germans out of France anti Belgium. Let us hope it is true. Against it are various Swiss stories of German troops hurrying to the west. On the whole things promise to become lively and interesting on the west front.